Category: Hands-on
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Oppo Find 5 arrives at the office, we gawk at its 1080p screen

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It’s pretty clear that 2013 is the year of the 5” 1080p phones and the Oppo Find 5, which just arrived at our office, is part of the zodiac. 2012 was the year of quad-core processors, especially the Snapdragon S4 Pro chips towards its end, and the Find 5 has that too.

It’s not a matter of choice – with nearly 2 million pixels on the screen, the chipset will have to offer a lot in terms of both CPU and GPU power to make for a smooth experience. The Project Butter-enabled Android 4.1 Jelly Bean also helps. Read more »

Samsung Galaxy Grand pays us a visit, is in perfect shape for a preview

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Samsung’s mobile division is all about filling the market voids and creating unique niches (like the Galaxy Note). The latest device to come out of the Koreans is a 5-inch, extra cheap dual-SIM droid with a dual-core CPU.

Meet the Galaxy Grand Duos GT-I9082. Read more »

Pantech Discover landed in front of the camera, we did a hands-on

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Freshly announced last week during AT&T’s developer conference in Las Vegas, the Pantech Discover aims to rewrite the rulebooks for a budget Android smartphone in the United States. Priced at only $49.99 with a contract, the LTE handset offers better hardware specs than many members of the top-tier Android establishment at the moment.

The Pantech Discover features a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 chipset with a 1.5GHz dual-core CPU and a gig of RAM. Read more »

The Sony Xperia V is here for review, dual-core Krait, HD screen and water resistance in tow

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We like the trend of capable smartphones, which can stand a little dip in the bath or pool and live to tell the story, without the sacrifice of the good looks.

Out of this very same mold comes the Sony Xperia V, sporting a dual-core Krait processor, a 13 MP FullHD-capable camera and IP67 certification. We’ve got the video after the break. Read more »

A red-clad HTC One SV landed in our office, here goes the hands-on

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Announced late last year, the entry-level HTC One SV made its way to our office. The 4G LTE smartphone will be offered in a number of European countries, including Germany and the United Kingdom. In the US, the handset will be available for Cricket Wireless.

The specifications of the HTC One SV are a rather curious mix of old and new. Read more »

We run our hands all over the durable Panasonic Toughpad JT-B1 Android tablet

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Panasonic is all business and no play at CES this year. The company made a splash with a Windows 8 Pro slate and an ICS-powered 7″ tablet that goes by the name Toughbook JT-B1.

Being mobile-loving as we are we decided to have a closer look at the JT-B1 and we’ve got the hands-on below. Read more »

ZTE Grand S hands-on

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The ZTE Grand S is the Chinese company’s new smartphone flagship device, and looks to put ZTE on the map with its thin profile and 1080p screen.

Join us as we take a look at the stylish offering in our full hands-on. Read more »

Archos 97 Platinum hands-on: Getting the 9.7″ Retina treatment on a budget

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There are quite a lot of tablets here at CES 2013, but probably very few of them will catch the consumer’s attention as much as the Archos 97 Platinum.

Built around a 9.7″ IPS display pushing an iPadeqsue resolution of 2048 x 1536 pixels (264 PPI), the Archos 97 Platinum packs a 1.2GHz quad-core processor and 2GB of RAM that help the slate run Android 4.1 Jelly Bean very decently. Read more »

HTC One VX for AT&T brought a dash of budget-friendly Android goodness to our office, here goes the hands-on

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Launched alongside the One X+, the HTC One VX for AT&T is the Taiwanese company’s budget offering in the carrier’s lineup. However, the LTE smartphone’s solid build and rather generous 4.5″ display surely give it a solid upmarket feel.

The HTC One VX features a Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8930 chipset with a dual-core 1.2GHz CPU and Adreno 305 GPU. Read more »

It’s Jelly Beans for dinner – the Google Nexus 4 comes to our office

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The Google Nexus 4 is a much sought after phone, but we finally managed to secure a review unit. As usual, we’re going to take it for a quick spin in front of our camera before we get to writing our review.

While the quad-core Krait processor and the 4.7″ WXGA screen are great, we have to admit we spent quite a while just playing with the back. Read more »

Nokia Lumia 920 vs Apple iPhone 5: stabilization shootout – UPDATED

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Nokia made a pretty big deal of the stabilization feature of its Lumia 920 flagship smartphone. The handset comes with the Floating lens technology, which is real optical image stabilization, as opposed to the digital solution of its competitors.

Naturally, we were very curious to find out how big a difference the new technology makes, so we decided to pin the Nokia Lumia 920 against the Apple iPhone 5 (which has the most efficient digital video stabilization we have seen so far). Read more »

Nokia Lumia 920 comes back to our office, promises to stay for a full review this time

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A couple of weeks back, we gave you a hands on of the new Windows Phone-powered Nokia flagship, the Lumia 920 for AT&T. Back then however the phone was delivered to one of our US offices and not to our HQ, so we were unable to do a proper review complete with all our trademark tests. And since we felt that a smartphone of this stature deserved better, we decided to wait until we receive the international version. The waiting is finally over, though and we’ll now do our best to give you the review as quickly as possible.

You can be sure we’ll be doing all of our traditional tests (plus some exclusive to this review like an optical stabilization test), and comparing every aspect of the Nokia Lumia 920 to the likes of the Apple iPhone 5 and Samsung Galaxy S III. Read more »

Nokia Lumia 810 for T-Mobile came over, looks strangely familiar

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With the Nokia Lumia 820 exclusive to AT&T in the United States, the Finnish manufacturer had to resort to rebranding tactics in order to put its mid-range Windows Phone 8 offering on other carrier’s shelves. The Nokia Lumia 810 for T-Mobile is one such product – the stealthy looking handset is essentially a clone of the Lumia 820 with some minor tweaks thrown in.

Like its 920 and 820 siblings, the Nokia Lumia 810 packs a dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 chipset and a gig of RAM. Read more »

Samsung Galaxy S III mini comes back, hasn’t grown up

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The Samsung Galaxy S III mini stops by our office for a second time – the first time we did a preview and we’ll do a full review now. Before we start, we put it in front of our camera and give you a quick reminder of what the S III mini offers.

In a “Honey, I shrunk the kids” moment, Samsung took the Galaxy S III and created a mini version of it, dropping the screen size from the pocket-busting 4.8” to the much more manageable 4”. Read more »

Microsoft Surface RT is here – we give the slate the hands-on treatment

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The Microsoft Surface is Redmond’s first attempt at building its own tablet hardware and comes with the spanking new Windows RT preinstalled.

Office Preview 2013, live tiles, VaporMG, a kickstand and Windows functionality on a slate all but await you after the break. Read more »